Saturday, June 9, 2012

Mt. Evans - 6.2.2012

Last Saturday I met Loveland skiers Eric, Tracy, and Hans at the Summit Lake parking lot on Mt. Evans with the hopes of skiing several laps on Evan's steep north face. Almost exactly a year ago, Brennan, Andrew, and I had an incredible day in this area, and I was excited to get back. As I drove from Idaho Springs up towards Summit Lake thick, puffy clouds were already beginning to cover the sky. When I met Eric at the parking lot the sky was completely gray. By the time we were at the top, rain and snow was falling around us and we could hear thunder getting closer. With the bad weather coming we knew it wasn't the day to be at 14k. We quickly put on our skis and headed down; Eric and I skied the Y-Rag Coulior, while Hans and Tracy skied the main bowl.

Photo: Eric Shipley

Photo: Eric Shipley

Photo: Eric Shipley

At the bottom of the headwall we stopped to wait for Hans and Tracy:

Tracy:

Hans:

Two thirds of the way back to the car the snow ran out and we walked the rest of the way down.

Grays and Torreys to our west:

Monday morning I talked to a coworker who had been fishing on Guanella Pass on Saturday. He told me he had been shocked repeatedly by his fishing rod at 10:30 in the morning. Although its hard to call it a day after one run, its worth living to ski another day, I'm glad we didn't stay up there longer.

I think this will be one of my last ski days this season. I may try to head up to Forest Lakes on Rollins Pass, maybe we'll do a trip to the Beartooths in a couple weeks, and we will hopefully do a day on Skyscraper snowfield in July. Otherwise, I'm ready to enjoy summer and look forward to another great winter next year: hopefully the backcountry will be stable, the memories shared, the powder frequent, and the snowmobile problems not so frequent.